I'm on day three of a paleo cleanse. For anyone unfamiliar, the paleo diet aims to improve digestion, immune function, the inflammatory response, hormonal function and energy levels by omitting many of the foods that contribute to the decline of these important systems; including grains, sugar, dairy and beans & legumes.
While this diet isn't necessarily low carb, as it emphasizes getting your carbs from fruits and vegetables, the body does seem to go through a mild carb detox in the first few days. For this reason, I don't feel too chatty today. I will get into much greater detail in my next post regarding the nitty gritties of this diet (or cleanse) with a lot of lovely recipes to follow.
But today, I needed a damn snack.
A significant key to success with this diet is meal and SNACK prep. It's important to have a good selection of appropriate nibblies on hand. This one's incredibly simple and easily adapted to your taste. It's not even a recipe, more of an idea.
I used my mandoline to slice the apples, but if you can manage thin, somewhat uniform slices with a knife, go ahead! Can you guess which kind of nut butter this is?
It's raw cashew butter! Of course! I just whipped up a fresh batch and what better way to use it than to spread it on apples. One of the main goals of the paleo diet is to maintain a balanced blood sugar level to keep insulin low. Chronically elevated insulin - or spiking it throughout the day- can lead to all sorts of problems. Metabolic syndrome and diabetes are the big side effects, but silent, systemic inflammation (leading to cardiovascular disease), abdominal weight gain, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, moodiness, anxiety, etc, etc, etc..are also major concerns associated with the influx of insulin. It's not good. So, while fruit is wonderful and full of very important vitamins and minerals as well as fibre, it's a good idea to pair it with a fat or protein to ease that blood sugar effect. Don't stop eating it though!
I chose Honey Crisp apples, but any variety will do. The pairing of that smooth, rich cashew butter with those crisp, sweet apples is just perfect.
You could sprinkle this with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, hemp seeds, cacao powder or chocolate shavings. If you wanted to be crazy, you could swap the nut butter for bacon (whaaa?!)
I think this is just perfect the way it is. A two ingredient apple sandwich.
Kids love them.
And I love them!
Enjoy!
And wish me luck.
